About Us

The Founder

Heidi Kunzli brings over 20 years of professional experience working with individuals struggling with substance abuse, addictions, maladaptive behaviors, burnout, stress and other life issues. In 2002, she founded and directed the groundbreaking luxury boutique rehabilitation center Beau Monde, and Beau Monde’s Emotional/Psychological Executive Renewal Programs in Newport Beach, California. Beau Monde, modeled after the exclusive, private Swiss clinic, quickly became an international success and for the next 6 years expanded to include 7 locations in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and the Hollywood Hills (Laurel Canyon Recovery Center.) In 2008, Heidi, after years of requests and suggestions from former clients, colleagues and others, again ventured into new treatment venue territory and created the super private, Privé-Swiss program, presently located in Laguna Beach, California and on the east coast in Connecticut.

Heidi also serves as business management, start-up and luxury marketing consultant to treatment programs and professionals. She is the “go to” person for media seeking information or comments on high-end treatment, the treatment of high profile individuals and those in the “public eye,” and on mental health/addictions and recovery. Over the years she has contributed to, and her unique rehab programs have been featured on, international television and online media, as well as in publications including Time, Newsweek, Vogue, Esquire, Forbes, Condé Nast, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Private Wealth, Robb Report, Financial Times and others. Privé-Swiss has been selected to be featured as a premier healthcare program in The 2014 Rolls Royce Owners Club Book.

Through Heidi’s 20 years of counseling and coaching, she has developed specialization in achieving and sustaining lifelong recovery from substance abuse and addiction as well as stress management, self-management, creativity enhancement and transformational lifestyle management for executives, professionals, entertainers, athletes and other very successful, high functioning individuals. She likes to describe her clients as “super-achievers” who have gotten derailed from living and enjoying their full potential due to burnout, stress, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, addiction and other serious mental health issues. Heidi is not satisfied with merely helping an individual to stay sober or teaching relapse prevention; her purpose is to assist her clients in re-connecting with and strengthening their core, authentic self and getting back on a path of power, purpose and life fulfillment! She strongly believes that life in “recovery” from any dysfunctional behavior should not be one of self-limitation, but rather one of self-expansion.

Heidi’s approach to treatment is the belief that all individuals have the capacity for self-healing and that a person’s concept of the “self” influences behavior and is related to emotional state, well-being and judgment in the individual. In accordance with this belief, Heidi’s approach looks at “relapse” as no longer an issue in the “recovering” individual once he or she can identify, develop and live life in accordance with their true, authentic self. In developing her unique treatment programs she states, “Recovery is a life-altering, deeply personal experience. Our goal is to create an individualized program that is “emotionally relevant” to each client; one that honors and works within that person’s ‘lifeworld’—we do not ‘force’ a person to participate in our treatment program. Instead, we invite the individual to be an active participant in treatment and create a program specific to his or her unique needs and life goals.”

As well as her many years of counseling experience and longtime personal recovery, Heidi Kunzli earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Springfield College, School of Human Services in Springfield, Massachusetts. where she graduated summa cum laude. She holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Springfield College, with a focus on performance enhancement coaching, training & development, leadership development and executive coaching. She has extensive additional graduate education in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University, marketing management from the Business School at Texas A & M University, as well as continuing education from Harvard Medical School. Heidi is currently completing board certification in coaching from the Institute of Life Coach Training, and is a participant in the Integrative Health Coach Certification program at Duke Integrative Medicine, Duke University. She is a founding fellow of The Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, as well as an invited reviewer for The ASAM Criteria: Treatment Criteria for Substance-Related, Addictive, and Co-Occurring Conditions, October, 2013, American Society of Addiction Medicine. Heidi’s research interests are in the areas of personal identity and transformation, self-regulation, motivation, self-actualization, and the integration of therapies for the treatment and sustainable recovery from mental health challenges.

Heidi Kunzli is a state licensed (CT) and certified (CA) Alcohol, Drug & Addictions Counselor and Recovery. She is a past instructor of alcohol/drug counselor training studies at California Paramedical and Technical College in Long Beach, CA. She is a continuing education provider and counselor development consultant for certified alcohol and drug abuse counselors, marriage and family therapists and clinical social workers. Heidi is an invited speaker on the topic of motivational enhancement therapy and the individual change process.

Heidi resides in Essex where she enjoys strolling the lovely streets of the village, or heading down to the docks with her two Australian Shepherds.